Julie Child's Boeuf Bourguignon

Those of you that have seen the film Julie and Julia perhaps like me fancied giving the Boeuf Bourguignon a go!! Of all the recipes shown or mentioned on the film this one appealed to me as a must do (along with the boning of the duck which is an exprience I absolutely HAVE to try!)

Having spent a while searching for the bacon "chunk" I settled for the ready prepared lardons that the chunk was to be cut into anyway! Other than that there was no difficulty finding the ingredients. On advice from a friend who had already tried the recipe (and recommended the film to me in the first place) I didn't add as many small onions to the Bourguignon as the recipe stated - 18-24. She didn't feel they added to the end result and I have to say I was pleased I had taken her advice - I only added about 6. I will also admit at this point to a slight misread of the recipe adding 1 1/2 pints of red wine instead of the stated 1 1/4 pints. Apart from having to explain to my other half what had happened to, almost, his entire bottle of red wine this wasn't disasterous!

I decided to serve this with creamy mash potato although Julia Childs also recommends buttered noodles! This is one of my favourite recipes since stating the blog, along with the venison-less pie. It was absolutely gorgeous, loads of flavour, filling but not stodgy and such tender meat. I have already been asked to make this again and the leftover portion, reheated for lunch at work the next day, was clearly relished from the reaction the following evening!